Kept in the Dark: NSFT’s Mutualisation Application Part II

2. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE MAIN BENEFITS OF THE MUTUAL MODEL IN ADDRESSING THE STRATEGIC CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED AT (1) ABOVE AND ON IMPROVING SERVICES TO PATIENTS? 1. Benefit: Employee engagement and morale. NAViGO (a mental health services mutual) reduced staff absence from 6.8% to <3% in the two years after mutualising, and has […]

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EDP: A half-way house to privatisation?

Care minister Norman Lamb denied yesterday that mutuals were a step to privatisation, after campaigners claimed the NSFT could leave the NHS. But a spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, which put in the Freedom of Information request, said: “Staff are up in arms about this. It is

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EDP: Move to improve staff morale causes an upset

Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: But in a move which has done nothing for staff morale the trust suggested employing workers in low wage countries to talk to mental health patients over Skype, in its application to secure government funding to research the project. The NSFT’s full application for government money to explore becoming

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health Skype ‘outsourcing’ causes concern

 Emma Corlett, spokeswoman for Unison at the trust, said: “Our view of the report is that it shows whoever did the application did not have a very clear understanding of the work frontline staff do or the way face-to-face therapy works. “We want a skilled and well-paid workforce here and we should not be looking

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Kept in the Dark: NSFT’s Mutualisation Application Part I

1. WHAT IS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MAIN STRATEGIC CHALLENGES FACING YOUR ORGANISATION(S) AND HOW HAVE YOU ADDRESSED THESE TO DATE? 1. Challenge: Rising referrals, and falling revenues on historic block contracts, causing financial pressures. NSFT has demonstrated strategic leadership though implementing a merger of two previous trusts in 2012, and a full redesign and

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Kept in the dark: Some of NSFT’s ideas to improve staff engagement

Here are some of the ideas that the Board of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has told the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health it has planned to improve staff morale and engagement in its mutualisation proposals: “[NSFT] is now developing radical new plans to again reduce costs. These include a root-and-branch

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Kept in the dark: NSFT’s Board fails to share its intention to leave the NHS with its own Board of Governors, service users, carers and staff

Our initial consideration is converting the entire trust into a typical CIC. This would involve governance changes such as; refining our existing membership model (possibly reducing numbers to include only genuinely active members), a members board (replacing Governors) which will feed input into the main board, elected representatives of both members and of staff on the

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NSFT – A Warning from History: Sunday Telegraph – NHS fatcats take pay offs – then come back for more

A series of NHS executives who quit their posts with lucrative payoffs have been re-employed on temporary contracts worth thousands of pounds a day. Stephen Dorrell, chairman of the Commons health select committee, said: “This is the sort of thing that gives effective management a really bad name.” Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of The Patients

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Ipswich Star: Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk protests at meeting attended by Norman Lamb, the minister of state for care and support, in Saxmundham

Norman Lamb, the minister of state for care and support, was met by a dozen members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk during his visit to Saxmundham on Thursday. The group was started by frontline staff and service users in response to the cuts at the Norfolk and Suffolk

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An open letter to NSFT, its Board of Governors and the CCGs: Why the Ashcroft contract should be ongoing

An open letter to NSFT, its Board of Governors and the CCGs Why the Ashcroft contract should be ongoing The Bed Crisis Over the last two years, there has been a serious shortage of acute inpatient provision. The number of patients placed out of area, in expensive private hospitals, has fluctuated constantly from a low

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EDP: Fighting for the Vulnerable 2015: Join our pledge to help those who need us the most

Today, the EDP issues a clarion call to our wonderful community in East Anglia. Let’s join together in 2015 to help those who cannot help themselves. We believe that some of the most vulnerable people in Norfolk and Suffolk are not getting the support they need or deserve and we cannot stand by and watch

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust spent £600,000 on out-of-area beds IN ONE MONTH

The BBC reports: Money spent on sending Norfolk and Suffolk mental health patients to other parts of England almost tripled last month to £600,000, new figures show. A spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said: “NSFT and the local clinical commissioning groups need to properly fund both inpatient

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EDP Editorial: This practice is terrible, so why is it still happening?

This practice is terrible, so why is it still happening? Doctors, patients and politicians all agree that sending people with mental health problems hundreds of miles away to get a bed is an awful idea. These patients are travelling to other parts of the country not for specialist treatment but simply because there is no space for them in Norfolk and

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Keep our NHS Public: Health Warning – A mutual may be heading our way

Jan Ainsley from Keep our NHS Public writes: Michael Scott, Chief Executive of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), was “delighted” to be able to write to staff with good news. NSFT has been successful in its application to investigate becoming a mutual in the government’s “Mutuals in Healthcare Pathfinder” initiative. Sounds cuddly doesn’t

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EDP: ‘I feel like I’ve been kidnapped’ – mental health patient who should’ve been released speaks out about ordeal

Almost four months on from the tribunal, his parents – Richard and Maxine, who run the post office in Thorpe End – are doubtful their son could be with them for Christmas. “I feel like I’ve been kidnapped,” Oliver Lang said. “It’s making me depressed.” ‘The mental health system is like a castle’ In Franz

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Video: BBC Look East interview mental health nurse Emma Corlett about Monitor’s investigation of NSFT

Watch the video below. If you are an Apple user and have trouble viewing the embedded video you can view it directly on Youtube. Sorry, this issue is a sometime side effect of the on-going battle between Google and Apple which is beyond our control.  

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Video: BBC Look East on Monitor’s Investigation into Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

Watch the video below. If you are an Apple user and have trouble viewing the embedded video you can view it directly on Youtube. Sorry, this issue is a sometime side effect of the on-going battle between Google and Apple which is beyond our control.

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